


Not Eating Time Conversation

by infiniteworld8



Category: Firefly
Genre: Arguing, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreamsharing, Gen, Humor, Minor Violence, Team as Family, disturbing imagery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-24
Updated: 2014-09-24
Packaged: 2018-02-18 16:13:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2354642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infiniteworld8/pseuds/infiniteworld8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inara and Kaylee are discussing dream interpretation and River shares one of hers, with predictable results. Typical dinner time arguing and crew commotion abound.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Eating Time Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this one and had it on my harddrive for awhile. The translations at the end were borrow from a Firefly story on this site called Divine Manipulation of the Threads...check it out it's a good read.
> 
> By the way rim world speech is kinda hard to write sometimes, but definitely fun.

_Blood dripping, bodies lying torn in half, pieces of flesh gouged out of human bodies, howls, teeth tearing …rending, screams, cries for help. It all flashed by._

_Then she was walking her feet making no sound on the hard metal planking. The place was unfamiliar, bit the blood streaked walls, dimmed dirty corridors, and gouged metal reminded her of another place. She breathed the word under her breath, and inhaled the smells permeating the ship. Blood, engine grease, broken atmo mixers, stale decayed meat, and the smell of fresh flesh. Her hands trailed against the walls, feeling the sticky wetness against them, and her feet felt the hard pitted metal of the deck._

_She turned a corner . and finally walked into the light. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust and then she saw where everybody was. . There was Simon, Book, Inara, Jayne, Wash , Zoe, Mal, and Kaylee. She stared around in shock. Each one was hanging up by their wrists, , torso stripped to bare muscle, with their skin peeled back , their eyes wide and staring. Blood dripped down their bodies and their entrails dangled free. She tried to shove away the stiffening corpse and one swung closer as . It was Simon, his bloodied fingers trailed against her cheek, as eyes stare out with a sightless gaze. River screamed._

“Shhh—calm down mèimei. It’s just a dream, just a dream”

River struggled to push away her brother’s hands as her eyes flared open. She screamed as he tried to touch her and pulled farther away.

“Calm down River, Calm down. It’s me Simon.”

River quieted slightly, her breaths were still catching in her throat. She allowed Simon to touch her and stiffened as he stroked her hair and tried to enfold her in a hug . Instead of his warm arms enfolding her all she could feel was the lingering grasp of deadened fingers. Finally it was too much, she pulled herself free and pressed herself against the wall, shivering and muttering to herself as Simon tried to come closer. “Don’t touch, dead things don’t touch living. Blood will be everywhere, 8 hanging , one lives. Left alone.”

“It’s okay River…” Simon tried to soothe.

But River backed away from him until she was crouching in the corner of the room, knees pulled up to her chest. She whispered over and over “The dead don’t know the living.” , until Simon finally retreated.

Simon stared at her from the edge of her bed, she could see his hair was still tousled by sleep as he stared at her confusedly trying to make sense of her words. He swallowed and tried again “River, I’m alive you’re alive. And I’m not going to leave you.”

“Fires of hell consume me, left alone on a ghost ship, the one walks among the eight but she doesn’t want to see, close her ears, close her mind, close her eyes, no knowledge she seeks, but it comes.”

Simon finally begin to understand some of what she was saying. “River, you had a nightmare. It was only a nightmare, mèimei.”

“No words speak the truth. The mind can’t comprehend.” River turned moving toward her door and past Shepherd Book who had awoken at the commotion . She ignored Book speaking to her and her brother’s calling her name. They didn’t understand; they couldn’t understand. The understanding was hers alone or maybe not even hers, maybe it was nobodies .She shook her head, the thoughts were becoming confusing. She shouldn’t have gone on the Reaver ship, but the echoes had called to her, and now they wouldn’t leave.

She opened her eyes, realizing that she had been walking with them closed and found she at the entrance to the cargo hold. She carefully wound her way along the metal walkways and then as agilely as a monkey hoisted herself into the rafters holding herself suspended like a bird, she remained hanging there for hours , during which she heard and felt Simon come and leave. When her legs finally grew tired she dropped to the deck instead taking up a position as still as a corpse on the metal decking. The quiet was good, the voices were easier to silence when she closed her eyes and blocked everything else out but the soothing hum of the ships engines as it glided through the black.

XXXX XXXX

“River it’s time to eat.”

She glanced up to see Simon standing over her, his face was concerned.

“Sustenance unnecessary.”

“River you didn’t eat any breakfast and if you don’t eat some food you’ll—“

“Food— items that are digestible and impart energy.”

“Uh, yes.” Simon.

“Enough energy available for 14 hours, will refuel then.”

“River,”

“The voices speak I must silence them or be forced to listen.” River turned her eyes up to Simon and saw him swallow sharply at her words, she knew he didn’t understand and that it was some of her crazy ramblings and maybe it was…how did she know” A wave of sadness rolled off Simon, and she closed her eyes trying not to feel. Finally she couldn’t bear it any longer; it wasn’t only the intense sadness it was that she was causing it.

She stood, and opened her eyes, and reached out for Simon’s hand. She hesitated thinking about each word and trying to figure out how to say it so he would understand. The words she finally said were. “The bird does not need the seed but the farmer needs to feed it.”

She slipped her hand from Simon’s grasp and began walking towards the galley. She could feel his confusion turning to understanding as he started after her… The images were still there in her mind but for Simon she could suffer through a few minutes of a meal before she returned to her meditations.

XXXX XXXX

 

At the table River stared at the protein mash and reconstituted potatoes and gravy. She broke the roll into small pieces and scattered them around her plate and then began carefully separating each them. Around her the beginnings to the usual dinner time argument started.

Inara had been explaining dream interpretation to Kaylee and that had quickly spiraled by an impromptu request for a demonstration from the companion by Wash and Kaylee.

“Well, If somebody would share one I’ll—“

Inara barely got to finish speaking before Jayne interrupted. He swallowed part of the enormous mouthful of food he was chewing and with a leer began. “Last night I dream me and two of these sweet little gals from one of those real fine planets were gettin’ all familiar and their little năizi were as pert as a—“

“I think we all get the just Jayne…it don’t require no interpretation and that’s not eating time conversation.” Mal said cutting his eyes at the unashamed mercenary.

“Well, you can mix those two things , seems to me ain’t nothing better than food and a fine wom—“ Jayne broke off as Mal cleared his throat ominously.

Inara shot a half-grateful glance at Mal, but the captain was already looking away and gestured with his fork at Kaylee. “How about you little Kaylee what’s in that head of yours?”

“Cap ’n, I had a dream today that we were at Persephone and we was all dressed up like royalty or something’ and that got me to thinkin' that maybe one day if we got a big enough haul we could start up a more decent—“

“Now, Kaylee that’s really nice, but seeing as how we’re thieves and all I don’t see that happening any time soon, plus we got a respectable enough profession as it is. It’s stealing from the rich and crooked and giving to us, ourselves and …the poor… and anybody that thinks that ain’t respectable enough ain’t Shiny with me.”

Jayne interjected. “Sides Kaylee the only person worryin’ over ruttin’ morals and such here is the shepherd and Doc. And if you’re trying to impress the doc, then you gonna have to go a lot farther than changing from the thieving profession more like maybe not looking so _bū piādiàng_ try dressing up in something other than oil stained coveralls, something a man can see a little skin in and—“

“Jayne…”

The mercenary abruptly fell quiet at Mal’s warning glance and instead took it as an opportunity to stuff his face once more full of food.

A silence spread across the table in which Kaylee’s face was bright red, Simon looked uncomfortable, and River was now mixing her drink into her food as the rest of the table inhabitants figured out what to say.

Wash broke the silence. “Well, whose turn is it next?” Everybody turned to him and the perpetual grin on the pilot’s face faded slightly. Zoe was shaking her head. Wash glanced around the table. “What?”

“River’s “ It took a moment to register who had spoken and when they everybody turned to find River sitting in front of a plate filled with a grey slush of food and trailing a finger through it as she stared outward like she was looking at something nobody could see.

She started speaking in that odd way she had that sent chills up everybody’s spine.

“The blood was flowing down in sheet’s, like the broken girls hair. Scorched skin, burning cries, the monsters running past. People dragged down, chewed bones pulled apart skin, screams. Always screaming. Body upon body, young , old men, women. Eyes shut never to open again. Starting orbs out into the a darkness but seeing nothing, Metal upon bone, blood and flesh. Grating dripping with red. The cries in my ears….”

River finally trailed off. Once again nobody spoke. Everybody was staring at her. River waited and when they didn’t cease in their confused scrutiny— even Simon was staring…she stood up and slowly exited the galley. It took a few seconds before somebody spoke. It was Simon. “I-I think she was telling a dream.”

“Or what she planned on doing to us…” Jayne muttered darkly earning a glare from Simon. That didn't stop him from muttering under his breath. “She’s rutting _fāfēng_ ”

“You’d best tend to your sister doc, I ain’t had no blood flowing downing in sheets on my ship in a long time and I ‘spect to keep it that way.” Mal said nodding toward the doorway where River had disappeared.

Simon was already half-way out the galley following his sister.

There was more silence, this time Jayne was the person to break it.

“And people get on me—that definitely ain’t no eatin’ time conversation.” Jayne speared an enormous bite of food and shoved it in only to glance up and see everybody watching him exasperatedly. ‘What?”

**Translations:**

bū piādiàng: homely.

fāfēng: crazy.

mèimei: sister.

năizi: breasts (slang).

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it, drop a comment or kudo if you please .


End file.
